One of the most important aspects to consider when you start using social media platforms is to learn the social media lingo for communicating effectively to the audience. All social media communication aims to draw attention to the content that generates instant interest among viewers to consume it. It means that you must use some special writing techniques by using appropriate symbols that help the content grab quick attention. You must have seen the use of the pound symbol # preceding a phrase in the content used across social media. The hashtag, the ubiquitous sign that is usually seen at the beginning of social media posts, is an open invitation to viewers to pay attention to the content by hinting at its relevance for viewers. Those who want to know what is hashtagging have got their answer.
More about what is hashtagging
As you learn more about the hashtag symbol, you will realize that it is not just a symbol but more of a label that helps viewers quickly spot any information or posts with a theme that hints at the type of content. Unlike flags, hashtags do much more than draw attention by highlighting the content’s theme that helps viewers judge its relevance. By looking at the phrase accompanying the hashtag, viewers can understand whether it is worth clicking on it. It saves valuable time for users who need not click randomly to find the content they are searching for. Hashtags help viewers deal with information overload as they can cut through the clutter of social media and selectively click on the chosen hashtags. It allows viewers to focus only on the information they find interesting.
Twitter and hashtags share a history
The pound symbol #, also called an octothorpe on computer keyboards, was primarily used for denoting numbers like the house number, plot number, seat number, etc. The name hashtag comes from the programmer culture because programmers used to call the symbol a hash. The first use of hashtags dates back to 1988 when the world did not know about the internet. The symbol was used on internet relay chat (IRC) to label topics and groups available across the network.
During the initial days of the Twitter launch, users complained about excessive irrelevant content due to the free-for-all nature of the platform. Soon, Chris Messina drawing inspiration from the IRC labeling technique, used the hashtag on Twitter for the first time on August 23, 2007. The use of hashtags perfectly suited the platform’s brevity. Within the next two months, during the California wildfire in October, Twitter users started using hashtags rampantly to draw attention to the content.
Since then, hashtags have become synonymous with social media conversations as they spread across other social media platforms, and hashtagging soon became a norm.
Why use hashtags?
Besides creating the initial attraction toward a piece of content to enhance its visibility to search engines and viewers, hashtags serve many other purposes.
Engagement – Hashtags are ubiquitous tools for increasing engagement. Including hashtags in the post means that you are in tune with the latest string of conversations on the social media platform. Your posts become highly visible due to the hashtags that promptly attract the viewers’ attention. As more people view your posts, it increases the engagement rate through shares, likes, comments, and new followers.
Branding – Businesses are increasingly using branded hashtags for marketing and promotion to take advantage of the high engagement rate that boosts their branding efforts. Has tags drive brand-related conversations that help spread brand awareness and place the brand firmly. Hashtags contribute immensely to popularizing brand-oriented content, which is beneficial for brand building.
Add context to the posts – Paucity of space on some social media platforms like Twitter fueled the popularity of hashtags that help to provide a context to the posts. It becomes easy for viewers to figure out the post’s relevance concerning what they are searching for.
Once you know what is hashtagging and understand its benefits, you can create more crisp and deft content on social media by using fewer words while driving home the point effectively.
